Some exciting news about a project happening here at Falmouth.

A Music Memory Box for people with dementia, a flying lampshade that communicates feeling, and coins that trigger invaluable experiences: these are all part of Watershed's new Craft + Technology Residencies at Autonomatic, a research group based within Falmouth University's Academy of Innovation and Research (AIR).

The Craft + Technology Residencies, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and supported by the Crafts Council, bring together makers Heidi Hinder, Chloe Meineck and Patrick Laing, with technologists at Autonomatic in Falmouth, Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol and i-DAT in Plymouth, to explore how new technologies embedded in objects (the Internet of Things) can enable remarkable interactions.

Imagine a music box that invites dementia sufferers to hold familiar objects, which activate songs, and magically stir inaccessible memories. Chloe Meineck's Music Memory Box does just that, but what if it could do even more? Setting out to develop this extraordinary project, Chloe will investigate the potential of communal experiences for care homes, which could even break out of the box to pervade the everyday.

Chloe Meineck and the music memory box

box owner

Beatrice Mayfield, Maker Development Manager at the Crafts Council, says "The Craft + Technology Residencies provide an opportunity for makers to collaborate with other industries. We look forward to how the makers and technologists will bring their unique skills to the production of a physical prototype and the impact this can have on each others' practices for maximum effect."

family tree

Codesigning

Craft + Technology Residencies will commence on 7 January 2013. Makers will receive research, development and production support for their projects. Residencies will last for three months, beginning with a public talk on 11 January 2013, and will culminate in a showcase event at Watershed on 28 March 2013.